Western Catskills

Welcome, welcome! As I’ve mentioned in my Guess Who’s Back post, while I was on a blogging hiatus many things happened to me, one of which was some traveling to getaway from all the stress of work and school. One of the places I opted to visit was the Catskills; for those of you who may not know, the Catskills are filled with mountains, hiking trials, ski resorts and beautiful wildlife to explore.

My boyfriend and I opted to give HomeAway a try and rented a cottage out in Damascus, PA which is in the Western part of the Catskills. The cottage was absolutely amazing, clean, warm, cozy, anything and everything you could ask for in getaway. It doesn’t stop there though, not only was the house itself great, but the owners, Merry & Tom were absolutely adorable! When we arrived, Tom was there to greet us and show us around the property, telling us how to work the fireplaces and showing us where all the essentials were. Not only did we receive a personal welcome but we also had freshly baked brownies waiting for us on the kitchen counter and a bottle of champaign in the fridge. Uhmmmm, best people ever?! I think so!

The property itself has was many acres long and therefore we could spend quite a bit of time just walking around and exploring all of the beautiful nature and we did just that on the first day we got there. Riley, my boyfriend, Andrzej, and myself took a stroll through all of the snow to enjoy the scenery and get some fresh air as the sun began to set.

I’ll admit, prior to coming on this trip we didn’t do much research, in fact, we randomly booked this trip in an effort to get away for awhile just a day before we went on the trip itself. Although we didn’t thoroughly plan everything out we did make the most of this by going on adventures, exploring trials and hiking even thought it felt like it was -15 degrees out. By the way that isn’t me being dramatic…that is actually what the weather app said.

We went on a couple of hikes, one of which led us to a gorgeous view of a frozen waterfall. The view was absolutely stunning and a bit terrifying too knowing that we were walking on snow and ice and hanging over freezing water…one slip and things could go very bad! Luckily for us, we were very careful and we managed to take in the beauty of nature without getting hurt.

Overall, it was an amazingly cozy and fun trip and I can honestly say that I want to go back to that sweet little cottage and spend a couple more days there. With that being said, I do feel the need to mention that if you’re feeling trapped, stressed, overworked or exhausted, I would highly recommend that you go on a website like HomeAway or Expedia and just book a place somewhere, anywhere. Sometimes all you need in life is to just get away and enjoy another places scenery to calm your nerves, reset your mind and make you feel alive again. Do it, I’m serious, sometimes it’s all you need so that you can clear your thoughts.